we love Keva planks

Keva planks are among the best toys ever.

We hesitated to buy them because they’re expensive and we weren’t sure whether Noah would play with them much, but we went for a 100-piece as a birthday gift this summer and are planning to get an additional 100- or 200-piece set soon because he keeps running out of planks for his gigantic projects. They’re very, very simple: just a box of identical 1/4 inch x 3/4 inch x 4 1/2 inch unfinished maple blocks. They stack very easily. So you can do all sorts of things with them, like spend hours reproducing the grain elevator that used to move grain to and from barges and trains on our riverfront:

Or build botanical gardens with trees and streams:

Or build a picture of yourself:

Or a tower that’s taller than you:

Or eagles and their nests, houses, a sculpture garden, etc., etc., etc.